


Compromising

by BuzzCat



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, def still accepting prompts for this ship so lemme know if you got something, look the prompt sounds smutty but the fic is angsty bc why not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-23 17:06:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11406789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuzzCat/pseuds/BuzzCat
Summary: Based on a prompt from snowbryneich - 'compromising'Set during DMC, James stands on the deck and falls a little more in love. Elizabeth realizes that to he sees her as more than just an accomplishment.





	Compromising

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snowbryneich](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowbryneich/gifts).



“There was a time I’d have given anything for you to look like that while thinking about me.” James leaned against the railing of the ship. The words felt like hot sand in his mouth, but they had to be said. He’d watched Elizabeth give her heart away before and he wasn’t sure how much longer his own could take watching it happen. She looked at him and James refused to look at her. If he saw pity in her eyes, he didn’t think he could stand it. He didn’t want her pity, he wanted…fuck he didn’t know what he wanted anymore. Anything but to watch her smile to herself when thinking about that thrice-damned pirate. Elizabeth sighed,

“James, I—“

“If you apologize—“

“I wasn’t going to,” she said. James wasn’t quite surprised. He motioned for her to continue,

“I…” Her words trailed away and somehow James couldn’t stop the smile that came to his face. It was the kind of smile he saw in the dungeon, when a prisoner had nothing left but their own self. The kind that came from spitting teeth onto the floor and looking at the dungeon-keeper and saying through a mouth full of blood ‘do your worst’. James knew he was smiling like that and he didn’t think he could stop without falling apart.

It took him a second to realize that Elizabeth was watching him, fascinated. He finally met her eye and was surprised to see a softness there, a look different from any he’d ever seen before,

“You really loved me, didn’t you,” she said, in a voice full of wonder. It wasn’t a question, so James didn’t respond. He held her gaze for a moment before letting his own slip away, looking out over the ocean. The pair were silent a moment, before he said very quietly in an odd sort of tone,

“I did.” It would hurt too much to say that love was far from past, so he left it at that. Elizabeth studied his face a moment longer, and suddenly he knew she could see right through. She knew. She knew, and he didn’t have to say anything. There was no compromising in this, no way to only love her by half. He still loved her and at this point, James fully believed that he always would. She was ingrained in his soul, in some deep corner was a mark he could never wipe away. She was a part of his very being, and he was a symbol of everything she had detested in this world, a jailer to a life she had never wanted. He looked over at her once more and saw her as she was. Not as his memories of her, ranging from a young girl constantly peppering him with question about life at sea to the beautiful woman who had stood beside him on that very high cliff all those months ago, but he saw her as what she had become: a pirate. An adventurer, a formidable opponent. A queen all her own, with finessed power that seemed to fill her every move. She was a force of nature; how had he ever thought to tame her into a wife? James saw her now and knew he loved her even now, even as this wild thing that could never be held, never be touched. He loved her with a ferocity that shocked himself. And he knew it would never be returned.

James nodded once at Elizabeth,

“Good day, Miss Swan.” He walked away, leaving her at the railing. If he had stood there a moment longer, he might have done something foolish, like fall in love with her a little more.


End file.
